#AtoZ Challenge Table

In less than three weeks time it will be a year since I first saw the inside of this flat. I knew straightaway that this could become my home. Within hours I had signed the contract and collected the keys. The next day I ran around the second-hand shops, choosing and paying for essential furniture. The following day my friend delivered a carpet and I fitted it, and my daughter delivered the possesssions she had been storing for me. The day after that was a Monday. All my furniture arrived, and that night I slept here for the first time.

The bedroom was uninhabitable, because of a problem with the floor, and I was waiting for the landlord to fix it. I didn’t have a bed anyway, but was happy to sleep on my sofa-bed in the living room for the time being.

My eldest daughter, Sarah, realised that I hadn’t got around to buying a cooker. I temporarily made do with a microwave, but after a couple of weeks she got so exasperated with me shrugging my shoulders and saying I’d get one eventually, that she bought one for me.

My daughter Claire was using my table while she looked for a new one for her home. Although she felt bad about it, I didn’t mind waiting for her to find the right one; she has a family to care for, while I was on my own. A few weeks of working and eating off a coffee table seemed no hardship.

Although I loved the flat I was not entirely happy. The shock of finding somewhere so suddenly, and moving in so quickly, had made me uneasy. I kept expecting to be told that there had been a mistake, and I couldn’t stay here after all.

Eventually the landlord sorted out the issue with the bedroom floor, I aquired a carpet and a rather uncomfortable, but acceptable, futon, and I started sleeping in the bedroom. My home, however, was still not complete, and I often roamed from room to room, looking out of the windows and staring at the walls, wondering why I couldn’t settle.

Claire found perfect, family-sized dining table, and on the day it arrived, she returned my table to me, with four dining chairs which she didn’t need, because she had bought six new ones. I call this piece of furniture a table, but in fact it is an old GPO desk, with two drawers underneath it. It looks like a small version of an old-fashioned kitchen table, and is big enough to sit four to six people. My brother gave it to me several years ago. His wife had bought it in a sorry state, with the intention of restoring it, but she went off the idea, so I spent several weeks sanding and polishing it until it looked beautiful. I love it more than any other piece of furniture I have ever owned.

I placed my table in the living room, by the bay window. I eat every meal at this table, I lean on it as I read, and I sit my laptop on it. As I am writing I can look out of my window and see the world going by, watch the sunset, and see the nearby trees change their clothing as the seasons progress. I have no television, and little use for my two comfortable sofas unless a guest shows up and wants to sit on one of them. If I am not out, asleep, cooking, cleaning or showering, I am sitting at this table.

If anyone asks me where I live, I tell them I have a flat at this address, but really, I live at my table. Everything else within the flat is just a background for my true home, my beautiful old table.

I know. You love your table!!! I love my desk, too, but feel there are more distractions there. Something about walking through a door, as well… it makes my mind go outward instead of inward. My mother used to read lying on her back on the divan. I probably got her genes!!!

That is a wonderful post. I have a soft spot in my heart for tables, too. That’s why I like Neil Diamond’s song “Morningside.” Ours is too big now, but I can’t let it go. There are so many memories around that table. I really get this post. 🙂

Now be honest Jane. Who wrote that beautiful post, you in praise of your table or it in praise of you? I have always known something really important was missing from your life story. I know now, thank you . Anton.x

My life has always been at the mercy of others, giving me love, joy & prosperity or, in equal measure, sorrow, sadness & suffering. But I have been blessed with so many friends both human & spiritual. I am very lucky. ☺Anton x

That’s what this site is for, to ensure we keep everyone who uses it happy, amused and above all make them feel appreciated and never lonely. It’s the greatest gift the digital age has given mankind. Ciao. Anton
ps: Jane and I could call ourselves Clinton & Trump, at least we wouldn’t have to write our own lines! 🙂

I have a beautiful table i spend many hours at too – overlooking the front garden. I gifted TRH three planks of redgum (a hard variety of eucalyptus) for his birthday. And told him to make me a table. He did. It’s enormously heavy, needing several strong men to move it. Being so eager to start, he didn’t let the timber cure long enough. So the top has an inward curve to it, making eating soup a bit tricky! It’s unique, its gorgeous and we all love it. So I can totally relate to yours 🙂

It sounds lovely – I’m sure mine is a much more modest affair, but it suits li’l ol’ me.
HA! I love that – you give your husband some timber for his birthday, just so he can make you a table. I’ve noticed your great sense of humour before, but this is a classic – surely it’s worthy of a post…

Your table was the missing piece of the puzzle! I sometimes feel that unsettled feeling when something isn’t right in the room with the furnishings. Then I go into a furniture rearranging frenzy (and my husband just rolls his eyes). When I finally get it right, the weird annoyed feeling dissipates and I can enjoy the room.

Anton, I’ve just been to your site, and tried to comment on our latest post, but it must have disappeared into your spam folder. I can’t understand what’s going on – I can message some blogs but not others. I don’t know what I did to offend the WP machinery. Jane xx

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Welcome to my blog. Here I record my thoughts and inspiration, mostly translated into poetry of one sort or another - provided I consider them publishable. You'll learn that I keep few secrets; I'm hot on honesty and openness. Like most people, I'm prone to many moods, and all of them are represented on these pages. Sometimes you'll find me happy, while at other times I may be sad. I may be funny or dark, proud or shameful, kind or cruel, nostalgic, frivolous, reflective, angry or just plain silly - whatever I feel is revealed in my posts.

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